[3.24] Frostbolt/Ice Nova Hierophant | 100m DPS | All Content

hey guys,

i've been following this guide and trying to make the transition from normal to gight budget built.

Would anyone be so kind to check out my character and let me know, that the best order of improvements would look likt?

€dit: if someone can help me on how to implement my items, i'd happyly do so

im at a pretty similiar state as you but i already got tailwind boots + unnerve gloves and they have made a huge dps difference for me so you should probably look to upgrade those.



i luckily crafted this helmet with a few fossils

and i think it would be best to slam hunter exalts on this but im not too sure. can i slam two hunters or can you only do it once?

You cannot use conqueror exalts on an influenced item, even if it's the same influence type.

I have a PoB question though. I know PoB is extremely unreliable for this build in general, but I'm trying to figure out if Frostbite is actually doing anything for me. PoB doesn't seem to be able to handle Awakened Curse on Hit being able to apply an additional curse, so I'm manually deactivating Assassin's Mark. Even when setting enemies to have 40% extra ele resists (in addition to Shaper DPS), toggling Frostbite (and even Frostbomb) seems to do nothing to Ice Nova's DPS. What am I missing here?

EDIT: Never mind, forgot about Glorious Vanity/Avatar of Fire messing with numbers.

EDIT 2: All right, I think I pushed this build as far as I am willing to go. Most fun build I've done in any league. Thanks!

Hi guys. This build is pretty good, thank you OP and also thanks to commentators about this. I have a question though :

Where do i go from here ?

I feel my damage is not quite there for a bosskiller character, since i dont instantly melt bosses of maps 14+ and my survivability either. Do you think i do something wrong gameplay wise or my stuff is not good enough ?
Btw i have 3291 life, 2966 ES, 2685 mana available and 2723 mana reserved (mostly because of Haste)

Priority upgrades: start leveling an Awakened Added Cold ASAP (or buy one at lvl 5 if you have the currency) and get a lvl 21 Ice Nova if you can. Levels on Ice Nova are a huge damage increase.

Next, craft a helm upgrade (-9% cold res to nearby enemies and high life with a Frigid/Pristine 2-socket resonator). You already have enough mana and shouldn't be prioritizing it in your helm (it's nice if you can fit it in though). Additionally, you shouldn't craft ES on the helm that you have. We don't take many %ES increase nodes on the passive tree, so getting flat ES on gear has minimal returns; a life craft is much more valuable.

Swap out your Frostbite ring with an Assassin's Mark ring. Hierophant already gets a lot of free ele pen and we use Frostbomb/helm craft for cold res shred such that Frostbite has diminishing returns. Assassin's Mark gives us way more damage.

Work on those three first and see how the build feeels.

Haste is really unnecessary, and if you're using it just for the phasing Watcher's Eye, you might as well just invest in a Farrul's Fur.

Hi you are going to make an update of the build for the 3.10 ?

Hey, any thoughts on how this is looking for 3.10? All the mana related stuff seems pretty cool.

Really enjoyed this in Metamorph and still had a lot of upgrades to go. Not sure if I want to do this again as league start in 3.10 or if I go for Ice Shot.
Main thing holding be back is the speed. I'm sure I could play a bit more optimally to clear faster, but with Delirium it's looking like clear speed is gonna be nice.
Perhaps someone has some tips on how to be a bit faster with this build?

new notable:

Cold Conduction
Enemies Chilled by your Hits are Shocked

holy shit
who needs shocking conflux?! :D

"

KillerKookie wrote:

Hey, any thoughts on how this is looking for 3.10? All the mana related stuff seems pretty cool.

Really enjoyed this in Metamorph and still had a lot of upgrades to go. Not sure if I want to do this again as league start in 3.10 or if I go for Ice Shot.
Main thing holding be back is the speed. I'm sure I could play a bit more optimally to clear faster, but with Delirium it's looking like clear speed is gonna be nice.
Perhaps someone has some tips on how to be a bit faster with this build?

The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear people talking about clear speed is the following:

Unless you have your stash directly next to one of the portal spawns of your map device and have enough dump tabs to always just instantly start a new map when you finished the previous, then use the 2sec animation to dump everything, and maximize the time you sepnd in maps, you shouldn't bother too much about clearspeed.
There's other ways to play more efficiently, rather than clearing your map 20sec faster.
Especially when you need those 20sec longer for bosses, which you probably will in the beginning of the league with ice shot (before you have some crucial dmg gear) - most likely you'll even lose more time, depending on how juiced the delirium map bosses will be.

General things to be faster, apart from what I mentioned above, is ofc an Alchemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline, instead of the Experimenter's affix most people use (you generally have 100% uptime anyways). That's not a negligible speed increase.
Next thing would be to get the dmg to one shot packs as early as possible (with a rather all-around-based build) in the league of course. Including rare packs.

If you manage to be super efficient on day 1-3 let's say, you'll most likely be able to accumulate enough currency to invest a lot in your gear overall (maybe even a HH, if you get a bit lucky and really know what you're doing), which boosts your speed overall as well. Mainly since most other people do not know how to get started with a high rate of efficiency.

The biggest downside of Ice Shot as a league starter in comparison with Ice Nova is tho, that you struggle with bosses, which will throw you back on early Sirius kills and thus Awakening Level Progression and possibly even deny your possibility to get your hands on Awakened Gems early. They're worth a sh**ton early on, especially if you find the right ones.

I've played a lot of bow builds, often as starters, and I really don't think the faster clear speed makes up for the early struggle for bosses. Especially if you're not experienced with the playstyle.

Also the nerf to target-farming (although they try to give us some more control over it again) specific maps early one, which gave the most benefit out of clearspeed, hurt those builds a lot.

But that's just my opinion / experience on it.

After all: play what you have fun with, else it will feel bad anyways :)

Hi, OP here. I do plan on playing this build & updating the guide for 3.10.

3.10 Notables from Cluster Jewels were released here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2783927. Here's my thoughts on the most powerful offensive notables for this build. DPS increase calculated with Premium PoB.

Cold Conduction
Enemies Chilled by your Hits are Shocked
Enemies Shocked by your Hits are Chilled
8-15%?? DPS increase. This would make Shocking Conflux helmet unnecessary.

Intensity
10% increased Area Damage
Skills supported by Intensify have +1 to maximum Intensity
11% DPS increase but reduces our area.

Blanketed Snow
Damage Penetrates 10% Cold Resistance against Chilled Enemies
8% DPS increase.

Master of Fear
Enemies you Curse are Intimidated
Enemies you Curse are Unnerved
8% DPS increase. This would make Unnerve on Hit gloves unnecessary.

Pressure Points
Your Critical Strikes have a 5% chance to deal Double Damage
40% increased Critical Strike Chance
6% DPS increase.

Force Multiplier
5% chance to deal Double Damage
25% increased Physical Damage
5% DPS increase.

Spiked Concoction
Flasks applied to you have 10% increased Effect
5% increased Attack and Cast Speed during any Flask Effect
4.8% DPS increase (with Bottled Faith/Diamond/Cinderswallow).

Practiced Caster
20% increased Spell Damage
5% increased Cast Speed
35% chance to Avoid interruption from Stuns while Casting
4.2% DPS increase + helps against stuns.

Evil Eye
Enemies you Curse take 5% increased Damage
5% chance to Dodge Attack Hits from Cursed Enemies
4.1% DPS increase + attack dodge.

Astonishing Affliction
20% increased Duration of Elemental Ailments on Enemies
20% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments against Enemies affected by Ailments
20% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments
3.5% DPS increase (more if using Cold Conduction / Shocking Conflux).

Burden Projection
30% increased Spell Damage
8% chance to Knock Enemies Back on Hit with Spell Damage
3.1% DPS increase + knockback.

Blast-Freeze
20% increased Cold Damage
Freezes you inflict spread to other Enemies within a Radius of 12
2.1% DPS increase + freeze proliferation.

Corrosive Elements
15% increased Elemental Damage
Cold Skills have a 25% chance to apply Cold Exposure on Hit
Fire Skills have a 25% chance to apply Fire Exposure on Hit
Lightning Skills have a 25% chance to apply Lightning Exposure on Hit
1.6% DPS increase + frees you from having to use Frost Bomb.

Wish for Death
You have Culling Strike against Cursed Enemies
Curse Skills have 20% increased Skill Effect Duration
0% DPS increase but grants Culling Strike.